1. Field
Aspects of the present invention relate generally to rolling mills in which hot rolled steel rod is formed into a continuous series of rings, and the rings are deposited in an overlapping pattern on a conveyor where they undergo controlled cooling before being gathered into coils in a reforming chamber. Embodiments of the present invention further relate to a guide with an improved and adjustable nose cone adapted to be encircled by the rings as they free fall from the delivery end of the conveyor into the reforming chamber.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional rod rolling mill, as depicted diagrammatically in FIG. 6, rod is continuously hot rolled in a rolling mill, the last roll stand of which is shown at 10. The rod may then be preliminarily cooled in one or more water boxes 12 before being formed by a laying head 14 into a continuous series of rings “R” that are deposited in an overlapping pattern on a conveyor 16. After undergoing controlled cooling while being transported along the conveyor, the rings are allowed to free fall from the delivery end of the conveyor into a reforming chamber 18 where they are gathered into coils. The reforming chamber is typically provided with a centrally located guide comprising a vertically projecting mandrel positioned to be encircled by the free falling rings.
The upper end of the mandrel 20 is typically defined by a tapered nose cone 22 having a horizontal profile when viewed from above that is optimally configured and sized to accept and guide rings of a specific rod size. Experience has shown, however, that rings of differently sized rods act differently as they drop from the delivery end of the conveyor. Thus, a nose cone designed to handle one rod size may not be suitable for other rod sizes, the rings of which may not lay flat as they accumulate in the reforming chamber.
In the past, mill operators have sought to address this problem by employing multiple interchangeable nose cones, with each nose cone having a horizontal profile configured and sized to handle a specific rod size. The maintenance of multiple nose cones represents a significant capital investment, and the task of interchanging one nose cone for another is both time consuming and labor intensive.